RESUMO
The fundamentals of nutrition have been reviewed in a brief manner for the benefit of the busy medical practitioner. It is inevitable that in a brief review dealing with such a highly intricate subject as nutrition, with its ramifications in chemistry, medicine, dietetics, and other sciences, the author has had to omit much data, both general and detailed. For example, no allusion has been made to tests for vitamins, their properties, their relation to one another, or to the great number of experiments on different phases of nutrition. It is felt that this detailed information would be of great interest to the expert nutritionist but would serve little purpose for the busy practitionerIt will seen that human nutritional requirements include a combination of dietary essentials, namely the carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. Each of these essentials is as important as the others, although the spectacular nature of vitamins tends to overshadow the value of the other elements. The well-balanced diet should contain a sufficiency of all these nutrients for the enjoyment of optimum health and efficiency. It must be remembered, however, that they daily requirements given for each nutrient are approximate and tentativeFrom the review it is seen that most of the indispensable elements usually lacking in ordinary diets, especially in the diet of Filipinos, are found in certain foods like milk, eggs, leafy vegeratbles, liver and glandular organs, which are commonly called protective foods. Therefore, it is important that our diet, which consists chiefly of rice, should be supplemented by liberal amounts of these protective foods. Furthermore, the inclusion of meats as a source of protein should be encouraged as it has been shown that their proteins possess superior properties over plant proteins. Finally, it must be emphasized that if our daily diet is planned so as to include meats and the protective foods, the rest may be selected with a view to satisfying the appetite.(Conclusion)